Something Better
by Materia-Blade
Summary: After Ranma is finally rid of the wreched curse, he gathers the confidence and finally askes Akane to marry him. Meanwhile... A red-headed girl tried to make her way without Akane. But... she couldn't make it.


Yet another writers block get over attempt. The blessing's next chap is more then half done along with one of my long forgotten fics which is being written on... (you'd never guess which) I've gotten stuck again. I get some idea's on fics from the weirdest places... I figure these one shots are going to establish me as an angst/death writer... WHICH I'M NOT! While fics like this I've heard of, I've never seen anything close enough to it to be described as plaigerism(sp?) but it is a simple concept so It probably has been done before. Either way, this is my go at it. Post Saffron.

(Please excuse me for portraying half the characters as evil)

Something Better

"Akane Tendo? Will you marry me?"

It was a question that Akane would never turn down. She'd finally won his affection! After all this time he could say it! Finally! A month and three weeks was all it had taken ever since he was cured of his curse.

Secure in his masculinity, he finally worked up the nerve to choose. And he choose her!

And now he was all hers! "Damnit..." she thought, "Not a prize... he's not a prize to brag over.."

She constantly had to berate herself for doing that. She didn't want to be like his other fiancee's. The ones who would marry him then set him on a shelf in a trophy room.

No. She loved him for him, and not for what he could do or what he was.

She watched as he slipped the ring onto her finger. It wasn't extreamly glamorous but it did look expensive... Ranma would probably be paying back Nabiki for... well who know's how long.

There was a good chance, however, that Nabiki gave him the family discount of 0 interest.

... then again..

He smiled.

"I.. l... Love you... Akane..." He stuttered.

She smiled one of her cute smiles that she showed him when he wasn't a jerk. She loved the way he would twitch when she did that.

But... to all her hatred, my father and Mr. Saotome chose right then to jump out and start crying.

"THE SCHOOL'S WILL BE JOINED!!!!" They cried in unison.

"Ugh....!!!! DAMNIT!!! GO AWAY!!!!!"

In her anger she sent both of them flying... she wasn't sure her father appreciated that much but he flew away screaming "MY BABY HATES ME!!!!!"

It didn't bother her much at all, in any case.

"Heh... sorry..." He smiled... "Well... if your gonna marry me Akane... I'm going to have to... get over my fear of hitting girls... i think..." He trailed off.

It sort of annoyed her. He chooses, NOW, to say somethng like, THAT. But the intended purpose was filled.

Tension broken.

"Ranma... I love you too..." She said.

And then in almost inaudiable whisper, she finished, "Thank you..."

He smiled again.

"Well Akane... I guess pops allready knows... So it won't be long before the rest find out somethings up. Lets go tell Kasumi." He said.

She was inclined to acquiesce to his request.

Kasumi and Akane spent the entire night figuring out something for the wedding. Ranma assumed he would go along with whatever she wanted unless she dressed him up in pink or something similar. He'd had enough of that. Good thing he'd finally gotten cured! His mother accepted him perfectly. She had torn the contract to shreds and burned the remains. His father was extreamly proud of him agian. He had gained the confidence to finally propose to Akane.

His mother now loved him unconditionally. She had ripped the contract to shreds and burned the remains. He never had to worry about the seppuku pledge again. He never had to change forms while wearing the other forms type of clothing. He no longer attracted water to himself. The kuno's only saw him as he was. A man.  
All in all there were almost all advantages. He truly had finally found the happiness he had always wanted.

But a guilt lingered in him. For what he had done.

It was on purpose, he had purposely chosen to drink the potion that had finally cured him, and he thought it was the best thing that had ever happened too him...

But what did she think?

--

She couldn't believe it had been two long years since they were married. Their second aniversary. And he was taking her to the most expensive restaurant in all of Japan! She couldn't be happier. They were on the verge of rich, with Nabiki and her odds and ends, and Ranma running the dojo, Akane didn't have to work for money at all. Though she did teach the elementary classes.

Just the day before, an interesting subject had come up. Where did the Nerima Wrecking crew go after Akane and Ranma had gotten married? The amazon's had almost instantly disappeared. Ukyo was still around and stopped by every now and then with Konatsu. Ryoga had dissapeared, and Happosai had dissappeared. Where had they all gone?

Oh well it wasn't important anyway. Today was her anniversary. Why was she thinking of yesterday?

Ranma had been off to get something. A surprise for Akane was what he had said. And she would definantly be surprised. Though not in the way he had planned.

Ranma was walking along the side walk happily, just coming out of the park to a heavy traffic intersection. A large truck was swerving down the road, hugging the curb like Genma/Panda hugged a beach ball.

The truck swung by him, barely missing him. He turned to shout after it, to see a very young child of maybe four walk directly into it's path.

The driver didn't even touch the brakes.

Ranma ran against a tree and propelled himself forward so he could possibly push the girl out of the way.

He flew by the truck as fast as he could and pushed the girl on to the grass on the side. She scraped her knee's badly but avoided the truck. Ranma turned as fast as he could and successfully jumped out of the way into the other side of the road... where a sports car pulling at least seventy, slammed him in the stomach. He was drug underneath the car tire itself.

Had it not been for his years of strengthening himself, there wouldn't have been a chance of his survival. The car slammed on it's brakes. Ranma lay in a disheavalled lump on the ground breathing deeply, unable to move.

A huge tire mark was left straight up his right side, over his shoulder and a few marks scathed his face.

The driver, realizing that he was somehow alive, immediatly called an ambulence.

Akane, meanwhile, had been brewing over with tears. Ranma hadn't made it back on time. How could someone stand another up if that someone had been married to them for two years!!!!

The telephone rang.

Akane rushed to the hospital as fast as she could go, skipping three rooftops per jump, her son following close behind in Genma's arms.

When she entered his room, Nabiki and Kasumi had somehow allready found out and gotten there.

Akane axiously asked what had happened and if he was allright.

No answers came. Just unanimous nodding.

She asked again.

"The doctor says... the doctor says he will be ok if he can get a Kidney transplant." Kasumi said.

"What?!!" Akane exclaimed.

"He was run over by a car at seventy miles per hour. He was hit by the hood of the car in the stomach which caused minimal damage. But then the car rolled over him. The left tire completly crushed his right kidney and dislocated fifteen bones between his shoulder and elbow. His left kidney was hit by a low left exhaust pipe. It is allright for now but will fail soon. If he doesn't get a kidney transplant within, about five days he will probably die." The doctor said in a monotone voice obviously used to these kind of situations.

"Are there any kidney's for a transplant!?" Akane asked yet more anxiously. From the look on the doctors face she had allready anticipated the answer.

"Of his blood type the chances of getting a kidney of the right size are extreamly low. It would be a miracle if one got here in time. All I can suggest is that you find everyone you can with his blood type and beg them to check and see if their kidney would work and convince them to donate it... at your loss of pocket money unfortunantly. I'm sorry.

"So your saying we have to go door to door!!?" Akane shouted.

"... Well... yes... practiaclly." He stuttered.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN PRACTICALLY!? I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR PRACTICAL CRAP!! FIND ME A WAY TO GET ONE!!!!" She ordered in a voice louder then she had ever used on Ranma.

"AKANE! Yelling at the doctor won't cure Ranma any faster!" Kasumi yelled.

And so they did.

For four days they searched for someone with the right blood type and kidney size. They only convinced about thirty people to check and none were even the right size let alone blood type.

Akane sat in the office and wiped the tears away from her eyes. One more day was the doctors estimate.

"Isn't there any other way? An artificial kidney or something?" She asked the doctor.

"I'm sorry," Was his only reply.

She stared at the body of her beloved. Nothing even looked wrong with it anymore. The face was fine. Even the shoulders and arm had practically heal.

Suddenly Nabiki thought of something.

"Why don't..." She started tentatively.

"What Nabiki?" Akane asked hopeful for an idea.

"Why don't we ask... ask... darnit what was her name?!" She exclaimed.

"Who?" Akane asked confused.

"Ranma's cursed side." Nabiki said through her fit of anger at forgetting the name.

"Who?" Akane asked still confused.

Nabiki openly gaped at Akane

And suddenly something clicked.

"Oh My god why didn't I think of that!?" She cried.

Genma and Soun both thoroughly agreed. They didn't want to lose Ranma at all. Not so early.

"Of course! How could we have forgotten that useless curse of my son? Perhaps she'll finally be of some use after all!" Genma exclaimed.

"But where is she?" Soun asked.

"Uh excuse me... I'm confused who are you all talking about?" Nodoka asked.

"Ranma's girl side? You can't honestly tell me you forgot all about his curse?"

"Curse? Preposterous. I remember no curse." She said.

"The red headed girl?" Nabiki asked.

"OH! You mean your cousin! Ranko? Ranko wasn't it? Ranko Tendo? She did look a lot like Ranma does now that I think about it. But what does she have to do with a curse?"

Nabiki sighed.

I'll go find where she lives.

--

Akane walked up to the doorway and timidly entered the establishment. It was two districts from Nerima. The curse hadn't been present at her... place of residence.

Now she remembered perfectly. That girl who stayed around for a few weeks after Ranma was curred. Yeah. The one who claimed she was the real Ranma. Yeah, right... After the girl became really annoying, Mr. Saotome and my dad told her she wasn't welcome. She was a curse. Some ghost trying to impersonate Ranma.

The weird thing about that was, Ranma had ignored the girl almost completely. When the curse and Mr. Saotome would start to fight, Ranma would leave.

But those fights were nothing compared to the fights Akane had with her. She kept telling me she was Ranma. She tried to go to school... hah. What was she gonna do in gym? Go into the girls locker room? Heh no......

Oh well, it didn't matter. Fortunantly that ghost still had a body part that could help Ranma live and Akane intended to get it.

Her place of residence was a small room in a very beat up old apartment building. When she hadn't been present there, Akane was forced to go to the only other place the girl was said to go. Her place of employment.

It was, needless to say, also so crappy looking only very devoted customers would even think of going there!

VERY... devoted.

But when Akane entered the store, she was very surprised to find almost a hundred customers or more looking around for simple everyday items. It was a grocery store and also a pharmacy of sorts, with even a small cafe in a side corner.

That cafe was her aim. The girl was said to do every bit of work in that cafe along with an older man of about 40.

She walked through the doorless way into the cafe. Inside there were about seven small circular tables. The walls were green and the floor was a rusty brown carpet that ended with the entrance to the kitchen. Despite the the unhappy surroundings only one of the tables was empty.

Most of the patrons were men, a few with girls, a few with other guys.

The ones with other guys were all looking toward the kitchen, where the red-headed girl, that was Akane's target worked her hands like wildfire cutting what looked to be carrots, onto a patron's plate four feet away in perfect order and alignment.

The girl glanced at her... and the carrots stopped flying instantly.

"Hey Ran... whats...?" The customer began to complain but stopped when he noticed the look in the girls eye.

Ran... the red headed girl was called. She almost never spoke unless she was forced too. Nothing EVER surprised her, and her work was almost always perfect. Her eyes were dead and she was very sad for some reason. But the only person she had ever spoken to openly was her co-worker. The one who's only job was to keep her food to make, though he was her boss.

But the look in her eye that this customer saw. He was a regular customer and had never seen a reaction like this. A sort of light came about her and her eyes sparkled with some sort of hope as she stared directly at the girl sitting at table 4.

She dropped the knives and turned around.

"Do... do you mind if I go and talk to a customer... she's an old friend." Ran asked.

"...Go ahead." Was his quick reply.

She bounded directly over the serving table and walked toward the girl that was once...

"Akane..." She said anxiously. "Hi... How.. how're you?"

"I'm was pretty good but something important happened and we need your help." Akane said quickly.

Ran's eyes changed. The hope they had was gone, replaced by something even more rare to the customers. Anger.

"You... you need MY help?" she repeated. "With what?!"

"We... Ranma got in a car accident and his kidney's are failing. We need you to donate one." Akane said in a no arguing tone.

Ran's fist's clenched. Her eyes narrowed and her hands glowed red. She concetrated and forced the aura to die down.

"... After all this... After... two years... you come into this shop... I get my hopes up... thinking maybe you came to say hi..." Her anger sizzled just below a boiling point, and her tone rose with each word.

"... After you... forced me to leave... after you told me directly that I wasn't who I said I was and that I was just a curse... a false counterpart to the real person. After all that! YOU EXPECT ME!!!! TO HELP...!!!! YOU!!!!!!!!"

Akane didn't see her hand move. Suddenly she stood there. The next both sides of her face burned red and she had been flung out of the air.

"SEE WHAT IT FEEL'S LIKE!!!!! I HATE YOU!!!!" Ran cried. "GET OUT OF THIS SHOP! NEVER DARKEN MY DOORWAY AGAIN!"

Akane looked up, frightened but still determined.

"If you were what you say you are, you would help!" She cried.

"IF YOU BELIEVED WHAT I SAID I AM! I WOULD!!!!" Ran replied back in a tone thousands of times louder.

Ran's hand appeared on the other side of where it was and Akane felt another cold slap fly across her face.

"I HOPED!! I HOPED!! That you had any sort of guilt... that you MIGHT be here to apologize! I had nothing... I STILL HAVE NOTHING! AND YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO TRY TO CONVICE ME TO HELP YOU!!!!????

Akane knew this couldn't have ever been Ranma. This selfish girl? No way. Plus... Ranma didn't even know audacity was a word let alone know what it meant!

"I should have known you wouldn't help. Your no Ranma, after all. You are just a cold outer shell of what used to be a part of Ranma." Akane replied coldly. "Ranma will die between now and two days from now tops. You HAVE to help. If there is any of Ranma in you, whether your a curse or not, you'll help."

"Ranma... that bastard who stole everything that was mine!? He can rot in hell for all I care." Ran finished.

"Sorry folks.... store's... c...closed for today." Ran said through strained shivers.

She left the cafe with red eyes and walked as fast as she could toward the exit.

Akane was left with something the really didn't like.

The people of the store. Every single one of them. Glared at her with downright hatred. Not because of their food. Because of the curse. She was just a curse? She didn't have REAL thoughts or feelings so what should they be mad about?

Each person walked out and left a glare of hatred. The young men, perverts if you will, left shaking their heads. "It just ain't right... Ran shouldn't be sad... she ain't never done a thing to hurt anybody. Evil !#$" one of them said with a most vicious glare.

The one elderly lady who was in the cafe walked out and turned around at the entrance to the store.

"Young lady... you have got to be the most ill-mannered brat i've ever met!" And she turned around and left on her way.

"What was that?" Akane asked herself.

Suddenly the man in the kitchen walked out onto the carpet. He took out a rag and began wiping the tables.

Akane simply watched him for the first one. Once he hit the second he spoke.

"So your her... the one that infactuates Ran's dreams. The one that she hopes will one day see her as even a friend. Your Akane." He said.

He was large man, caucasion to the look of it. Black hair with sidburns that connected to a beared. The cut was almost perfect, and had he not been wearing a cook hat and a white apron, a woman of 35 to 40 would definantly have been attracted.

"Yeah that's me." Akane said. "Who are you?"

"Well I don't think that matters much does it?" Was his quick, sharp reply. "What I want to know is what you did to her? What makes her so damn mad that she curses you and apologizes to you and screams for you every single night!? EVERY SINGLE SECOND THE ONLY THING ON HER MIND IS YOU! You and one other person. Someone named Ranma. I want to know why?"

"You sleep with her?" Akane asked sarcasticly instantly brushing off the slight guilt she felt.

"I sleep a floor below her, now answer my damn question." He cried. His tone, while angry, was more of a fatherly type.

"She thinks she is something she is not. And that is all. She is a curse." Akane replied.

"And you expect her to help this Ranma with you having an attitude like that?" He asked.

"If she holds any of the ideals she said she did, then she would be more than willing to help, no matter what she was called." Akane said quickly. "Obviously she isn't what she said she was. I'll be going now." Akane replied.

"Not yet. Who is Ranma?" The man said. He blocked the exit and stood to his full hight making himself look much taller.

Akane was not intimidated.

"Do you think you can stop me from leaving?" She asked, her temper rising.

"If I have to." Was his reply.

She launched a kick at his solar plexus. But when he tapped her oncoming foot and twisted it, landing on the ground unable to move, she was abnormally surprised.

"What the?" She cried and then realized what it was. "Shiatsu... damnit!"

"Now I'll fix it when you tell me who Ranma is." He said plainly.

"RRR!! FINE! Ranma is the person who was cured of her!! Ranma was cured of his curse and it produced her! Ranma is my husband and the only person we know of who can help him is her!" She cried.

"And you go walking on top of her hopes and demand that she donate her own inner organ, which if you go saying isn't hers but is this Ranma's..." He let trail..." You demand that she donate? After calling her all these things? Would you donate your organ to the person you hate the most with all your being? Because that's what she thinks of this Ranma. As much as she calls your name in her dreams, she curses Ranma and everything to do with him. She hates him... so much that she has destroyed entire buildings in fits of rage when she thinks of him. You think she would help this person?!"

"I've told you who he is... now let me up." She said quickly.

"Like Ran said... if you ever darken her doorway again you will not like the consequences." he finally said.

He picked her up and took her through the kitchen, opened a door in the back pressed a point on her back and literally tossed her out.

--

Akane couldn't give up yet.

She had to try. Maybe if she was nice to the thing. Treated it like a person? Maybe then it would come around?

She had to try. Her husbands life was on the line. Something she SERIOUSLY hated to gamble with.

She knocked on the door to... Ran's apartment agian.

She barely saw a twitch behind the looking glass in the door and suddenly it flung open. A red aura mixed with a sickly green aura forced her against the wall on the opposite side of the hallway.

"Didn't I just tell you... never to come near me again?" She said in a deadly tone.

"Ranma." Akane said. "I wanted to apologize... I'm sorry... please..." she pleaded.

It was hard to catch but Akane saw it. There was a lapse in Ran's attention. A moment that the aura weakened. But then it came back just as strong forcing her allready extreamly noticeable body print into the wall to become more visible.

"I can't trust you! How could I trust you? How could I possibly think you would take me back? That you would ever even acknowledge my existance after you got HIM back? You would dump me again like you did then! And so would everyone else!!!!" Ran cried.

"No, Ranma! I promise--"

"DON"T CALL ME THAT!!! YOU TOOK THAT NAME FROM ME!" She cried. "I NEVER WANT TO BE CALLED THE NAME OF THAT SELFISH BASTARD AGAIN!!! HE KNEW! BUT DID HE STAND UP FOR ME?! HELL NO!! If I were to do this.. it would be because of you alone. And I swear if you betrayed my trust agian. If, when Ranma was back on his feet again, you told me I wasn't welcome... All the Ranma's in the world wouldn't be enough to protect you from me.." Ran told her.

"Please... I promise!" Akane begged.

Inside she smirked. The curse was still as gullable as a ghost could be expected to be. "As gullable as Ranma." She thought. But she quickly threw the thought from her mind.

Outside she groaned with the pain of being forced to make a self print in a wall.

Ran let down the aura, and repeated herself. "I just want you to even acknowledge that I was just as much Ranma as he was! I loved you as much as he did!!!"

"I know... I acknowledge it. But I doubt you'll get the same reaction from your father or mine... can you please forgive whatever they say to you, Ranm.. well... what do you want me too call you?" Akane replied.

Tears dripped down Ran's eyes. She finally believed. Her Akane said that she believed her!

At the back of her mind she knew... beyond any shadow of a doubt that it was a trick. Two years without so much as a letter from any of them... it had to be just a trick. But she had no choice. It was Akane... and Akane said she believed her.

"Call me Ran," She answered. "I'll... be aloud back into the dojo?" She asked still hopeful.

"You were never forced out." Akane said.

Ran's eyes narrowed again.

"When I was FORCED out of the dojo your father said quote "And I never want to see you on my door again, you FAKE!" End quote. "Are you sure?" She asked.

"I'll talk to daddy. We'll let you back into the dojo. We'll build you your own room if you want. Just please help him..." Akane said. Tears began to roll down her eyes as well.

She smirked again. The gullible curse. Hah. Like it could threaten her when Ranma was around? No. She wouldn't let this thing, stay in her house. But she had no choice but to lie for now. She needed Ran to donate her kidney or Ranma wouldn't survive. It was the only way.

They left the hotel and hurried to the train station. Upon arriving in Nerima, they immediatly took to the rooftops to get to the hospital. Where they met her.

"So... you finally come out? Ran! You I kill!!!!" Shampoo shouted. She jumped on rooftops following them and quickly advancing on them.

"What the? Is that Shampoo?" Akane yelled.

"Yeah... she trys to kill me when I leave the district. She's under federal order not to come near me there and, while she's good. She can't dodge bullets." Ran said

"Ran..." Akane thought. Again she felt a pang of guilt. "Why?"

"In a hope of regaining her honer, Shampoo, when you married Ranma, took up the kiss of death again." Ran replied slowly.

Suddenly Ran flipped backward. And then appeared right beside Akane again. Below a crash was heard along with a scream from Shampoo.

"Damn cat." Ran muttered under her breath. "Ryoga, follows me around trying to kill me too, because hurting your Ranma would make you angry and he hates that" She told her. "Happosai follows me around too. I don't wear panties or bra's because they always get stolen anyway."

Akane felt another horrible pang of guilt. But again she forced it down. And thought about how Ranma would be awake and protecting her from this... thingin no time.

They ran on further toward the hospital and arrived quickly.

"So... the girl arrived." Genma commented, accenting the word girl with a condecending tone.

Ran winced and looked at her feet sheepishly.

"Ran.. you go in and see the docter... i'll talk to these two." Akane said and then glared at her father-in-law with a harsh stare.

Ran walked in leaving Akane behind again.

Akane strode up to the two fathers sitting in the corner of the outside waiting room.

"I'm impressed Akane-san. You managed to get her to come. I didn't think that she would. The dishonorable... thing!" Genma commented. He suddenly found himself with a compressed stomach.

"CAN IT IDIOT!" Akane cried. "Look... I've promised her that she can come back to the dojo and live with us--"

"WHAT! I"ll not have that CURSE In my home aga--UGH" Soun suddenly found a fist in his gut also.

"Of course not! You think I want her around? But she has to donate her kidney. Until she does that we have to pretend to be accepting her back ok? Don't worry. I hate that Jusenkyo ghost as much as Ranma does and I couldn't live around it for more than as long as I have too ok?" Akane whispered.

Both men, who's voices had been impared due to the fists that were imbedded far to deep into their stomachs, nodded.

--

"Amazing!" The doctor exclaimed. "She's almost a perfect match! The only problem is it's a little on the small side but not nearly enough to be a problem. Congratulations miss Akane. You've worked a miracle in finding this girl. Are you ready for the operation? We can begin immediatly if you wish miss...?"

"Ran." Ran replied. "Yes... I wanna get this over with... Akane... do you swear...?"

Akane did a sort of nod that was slightly curved sideways. Ran truly hoped that had been a crick in the neck.

She looked at Genma and Soun and they nodded in the same sort of side to side, up and down at the same time way.

"Don't die on me bastard... I have an Akane to please... and this may be my last chance. So please don't die." She thought.

Ranma lay on the annoyingly uncomfortable bed and let them insert a formula of some type into her skin. Her last concious sight was two doctors putting on gloves.

The last thought was, 'God let it work.'

And all was black.

--

Ran awoke dazed, feeling increadibly horrible. She was laying on grass. There was something extreamly wrong with that. A girl who fell asleep in a hospital didn't usually wake up on a downward sloping hill covered in mud and bruises.

Her body ached with lack of nourishment. She was in a ditch, where she didn't exactly know. But it was on the side of a very unused looking road, a long way from any cities.

She knew something had gone wrong. Her ichyness told her that much. She knew something had gone very wrong when she realized she had bruises and was covered in mud. She knew something was extreamly wrong when she realized she was in a ditch.

She looked at a little piece of paper lying on her stomach.

It was a note and had a simple statement.

Rest in Peace. Curse.

Her anger boiled. Akane had PROMISED. She had sworn she would let her stay at the dojo! She had sworn!!!

All her love of Akane was finally dried up. Her unending kindness and patience finally at a complete end.

Akane Tendo, would die.

--

"I knew you could do it Ranma!" Akane cried as she leaned against his shoulder.

"Never coulda pulled through without you Akane. Thanks." He smiled back.

Ranma had just been released from the hospital, to the amazement of every doctor present. They walked home. Ranma, in seemingly perfect condition.

They arrived and Ranma happily greeted those who still lived there. Kasumi, Genma and Soun.

Tofu also lived there but he was working to make up for lost time.

They ate a feast that had been prepared for in honor of Ranma's great survival. He had also been introdued to the child he had saved and her mother, who had possibly been a little overly grateful.

But then, almost immediatly after the mother and daughter were gone, and Soun and Genma had left to go celebrate in their own way, a sound was heard. The sound of rage. Unhindered hatred and rage burned just outside the gate. Or what was left of the gate.

Ranma looked at the girl that stood in the doorway, burning with hatred not even Ryoga had come close to harnessing. The girls mud covered hair, which Ranma would have thought was brown if it werent for a few red streaks hanging out here and there, flung wildly about as the girls aura swirled about her in a counterclockwise motion.

"Oh my!" Kasumi exclaimed.

And under her breath the girl repeatedly muttered something. "I'll kill you,"

She said it again and again as she strode slowly toward the one she hated most. The one she hated so much that she would kill her.

"Akane... you told me... you swore you'd let me stay here at least... but you couldn't even do that... what did you think I would do when I woke up?" She asked in a deadly tone.

"Akane whats going on? Who is this?" Ranma asked quickly. There was a hint of edgyness about him.

"She's no one I know Ranma." Akane replied.

The aura expanded and even more of the allready desintagrated gate vanished.

"Once I considered swearing I would never say this. Thank kami I didn't." Ran said still in a low tone.

"AKANE TENDO PREPARE TO DIE!!!" Ran shouted and dissappeared. Only to reappear inches from Akane. Her fist lashed out and drilled Akane in the stomach.

"OH MY! Please stop!" Kasumi exclaimed.

Suddenly Ranma stood between Ran and Akane.

"Don't know what your problem is lady. But your gonna have to avoid hurting Akane. It's bad for most people's health." He smirked confidently.

And suddenly another cry rang from the girl. "KATSU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!!!!"

Hundreds of punches flew at Ranma. And each punch was double the power of anything Ryoga had ever thrown. But Ryoga hadn't thrown a punch at him in a long time.

The first few punches got through because Ranma was surprised. But the next he blocked quickly.

At first he was impressed with the girls skill and precision, considering her anger. But after a moment he realized that this girl was his equal... no. His superior.

She kept up the technique for over four minutes, every punch aimed perfectly, and every block Ranma made, moving slower.

And the punches got through.

And Ranma flew through the thin house wall.

He got up slowly and was hit with a full kick directly into the two foot wide concrete wall. Stuck at least a foot into the wall, Ranma was reminded of Happosai. Only this was a Happosai that couldn't be distracted with panties.

She appeared before him. And pain was all he knew. She punched him in spots on his body he didn't know existed. There were only to points she avoided. She did not hit him between his legs and she avoided the lower left side of his stomach.

Akane was horrified. How could this curse beat the original? Could it be that...? Could this have truly been the original? No... Ranma had beaten this girl the last time when they had had a sparring match in the dojo. But this..

Ranma's head hung in defeat. His body ached. But through his pain he noticed that there were hundreds of bruises on the girl. The girl he fought wasn't even at her full strength.. Judging by the bruises... probably not even half her strength.

She finally stopped her fists and breathed she turned toward Akane and began to walk forward.

"Wait... you... win..." Ranma sputtered. Blood dribbled out of his mouth. "Please... leave Akane alone... I don't know what she did.. but I can make it up... to you..."

His voice was hoarse and weak. And Akane was terrified.

"You? You? Make it up to me? Why couldn't you have done that two years ago? Why couldn't you have told pop to let me stay? That I was just as much Ranma as you were? Just in a different body!

Ranma gasped.... "My... my curse.. your... your the red-headed... girl..." Ranma suddenly connected the features of this bruise and mud covered girl, dressed in a pair of ripped up black pants and white plain shirt... also ripped, to the red-headed girl he had turned into so long ago.

"What... what happened to you?.. What could Akane have done... that I would want to kill her?" Ranma asked. Forcing himself out of the wall he fell onto the ground.

Ran dissappeared. And reappeared in front of Akane again. She reached out and closed her right hand around Akane's neck and lifted her into the air.

"NO!" Ranma and Kasumi both cried in unison.

"For all the pain you've caused me... Don't worry Akane. I'll be coming right behind you.."

Akane pried for all she was worth at the hand that held the air from entering her lungs. But the finger's would not come loose. Her vision began to fade and her prying became less.

"RANMA! PLEASE!!! DON'T DO THIS! IF RANMA IS A PART OF YOU YOU'LL REGRET IT! PLEASE!!!" The male yelled reaching out as far as he could.

"Please Ranma." Kasumi begged. "Stop this... Were sorry!"

Ran's eyes cleared. She hadn't even heard Kasumi.. what Ranma had said. Ranma... the one who did this in the first place... called HER Ranma?

She dropped Akane...

What did she have left? She couldnt' kill the girl... now that she had come to her senses. No matter what she had sworn not to kill. And she had never yet broken a promise. At least a promise she could understand.

"... Ranma... I tried... I tried so hard to go on... without... I tried to forget her... and you... Just you always remember. I was better! I was the better one! I never broke a promise or hurt anyone! I was somthing better!"

Ranma's training helped him follow the hand. But only barely. She reached into the large, man-sized right pocket on her pants and pulled out a small pistol, pointed at her head, and fired.

"Ranma..." Akane sighed... i'm sorry.

--

Ranma forced the story of what had happened out of Akane.

Two months later they were divorced.

Ranma later remarried Akane and lived happily again but always in remorseful memory of that day.

Akane regretted her decisions for the rest of her life up till her dying day at the age of fourty three.

On the day of her death Akane put forth all of her remaining funds into the building of a customized headstone of a red headed girl covered in bruises and mudd directly under the bridge where Ranma used to sit. The name Ranma written on the forehead. And the name Akane written on the shoes.

On the bottome of the headstone beneath the feet, the words of her remorse were written.

"I wasn't worth the dust on her feet. She was something better."

Over the years a very long story about this quote developed. And the story was later written and titled Something Better.

It took place in a small town called Nerima and started with a Red-headed young girl and a panda walking into the town fighting an intense and impressive battle in the rain...

(FREAKING HELL IF I EVER WRITE LIKE THAT AGAIN SHOOT ME!!! UGH I"M TIRED!!!!!! Please criticise me as I seriously am in need of a very long review that says something along the lines of change this or that.

I would even happily accept a flame because... quite frankly I haven't had one since I started practically.


End file.
